The sharp anti-India rhetoric emanating from Pakistan right after the foreign minister talks in Islamabad on Thursday would suggest that peace with India is not on Pakistan’s mind for now. India suspended the composite dialogue process with Pakistan following the attack on Mumbai in November 2008 by that country’s “civilian commandos”. Suspicions were later confirmed with the confession of David Coleman Headley, who had carried out the reconnaissance for the Mumbai attack, that the assault on Mumbai was overseen by the ISI from beginning to end. In spite of the likelihood of ISI involvement, India quite inexplicably initiated a series of steps — commencing with the Sharm el-Sheikh talks between the Prime Ministers of the two countries a year ago — to change tracks and re-start a process of engagement. The Manmohan Singh government persisted with this approach, although in the beginning a touch hesitantly, given the strong domestic misgivings. Later, however, it would abandon the timidity with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh taking the high-profile lead on the sidelines of the Saarc Summit in Thimphu last April to inaugurate steps to cut the “trust deficit” between the two countries with a view to hitting the road to peace. First the foreign secretary talks in New Delhi at the end of February, and now the Islamabad interaction of the foreign ministers, offers few signs for us to hope that the path we have chosen has any traction left.
The Prime Minister and his men need to introspect whether the “trust deficit” has in fact increased, not lessened, at the level of the two governments as well as the people of the two countries. This is so much the pity. At the level of ordinary people, there is no fundamental discord between India and Pakistan, although on some questions there are glaring gaps of perception. It has been clear over decades that it is the use of terrorism as an instrument of Islamabad’s India policy that has been the source of bitterness in ties. Alas, latterly Pakistan itself becoming a victim of home-grown terrorism that was initially cultivated as an anti-India weapon has not helped moderate the Pakistan government’s approach towards this country. In the circumstances, any Indian initiative to dramatically reverse history and move towards peace and normality cannot be inspired to succeed in a vacuum. An attempt to do so is likely to attract failure and scorn. It is likely to look foolish, not valiant. In the light of the sharp public opinion rebuke the Sharm el-Sheikh move had drawn in Parliament and outside, the Congress party was initially wary of the government’s Pakistan policy, but in time it came to relinquish that reserve. After Mr Krishna’s return to New Delhi on Friday in the wake of the cold blast he was made to endure in the Pakistan capital, the Congress may have been expected to move toward some degree of course correction. In the event, it has not. The BJP, as the main Opposition in Parliament, has its tail up, and has demanded the abandonment of the present Pakistan policy. There is little doubt that the government will be pilloried in the forthcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament, and there are several state elections coming up in the next 12 months or so.
A possible fresh approach to Islamabad can be a subject of debate. But there is clarity on one key issue so far — Pakistan is not well placed to receive peace overtures so long as India continues to demand credible action against those responsible for the Mumbai attack. Its belligerence is fuelled by its perception that the West is about to pull out of Afghanistan, paving the way for the return of its client Taliban to power in Kabul. It is unrealistic to expect that Islamabad will coddle the jihadists in the Afghan theatre and go after them in the Indian context.